Rome, Jul 21 (IANS): AS Roma reinforced their squad with the signing of French striker Gregoire Defrel on an initial loan from their fellow Italian football club Sassuolo.

Roma on Thursday said Defrel, who scored 11 goals in his last campaign with his former club, penned a five-year contract, reports Efe.

"The French forward, 26, joins on an initial loan deal for a fee of five million euros ($5.82 million) -- with an obligation to make the transfer permanent for 15 million euros ($17.45 million) should certain sporting targets be met," Roma said on their website.

Roma added that the contract also includes three million euros ($3.49 million) as variables.

"I'm really happy to finally add Gregoire to our squad. He was a priority for us because he is exactly the type of forward we were looking for," the club's sporting director Monchi told Roma website.

Defrel is the sixth player to join the team this transfer window, after Mexican Hector Moreno, Dutch Rick Karsdorp, French Maxime Gonalons, Turkish Cengiz Under and Italian Lorenzo Pellegrini.